The Golden Compass

The first movie of His Dark Materials, discussed in the post below, falls way short of my expectations. The movie was visually stunning, the characters were decently portrayed, and it seems to be a pretty good overview of what happened in the book; but without having read the book, I don't know how a person could even come close to understanding what is going on in the movie. The movie seemed...timid. The book offers a plethora of plot lines and intrigue and controversy, but the movie glosses over quite a bit of it. It seems as if the director was trying to decrease the controversial aspects of the series. I can only hope that when and if they choose to make the last two books in the series, the director/producer/screenwriter/etc. is confident enough to really show the world of His Dark Materials.